An Unfair Budget: Dignity, Equality And The Right To Sanitation

14 May 2015 |

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SJC and NU publish joint submission on City’s draft budget

On 25 March 2015, Cape Town Mayor, Patricia de Lille, tabled the City of Cape Town’s 2015/2016 draft budget in Council and invited public submissions, challenging residents to find evidence that the budget is not pro-poor.

She may not have expected a response. The budget itself is opaque and it is difficult for residents to understand exactly how much is being spent on basic services in our communities. The public participation process is formalistic and limited. Last year only 23 members of the public made a submission.

This year, the Social Justice Coalition (SJC) and Ndifuna Ukwazi (NU) facilitated over 500 submissions from informal settlement residents on the lack of water and sanitation infrastructure in informal settlements.

Today we publicly launch our submission to the City of Cape Town on the draft budget. Based on 6 months of research, it explains how the City has allocated less than 2% of the capital water and sanitation budget to informal settlements since 2007, that the City uses inferior, temporary sanitation facilities as long term solutions, and why the budget allocations are unreasonable given the data and context of Cape Town’s informal settlements

It is now up to the Mayor to apply her mind to the evidence – and act.

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The Social Justice Coalition works to advance the constitutional rights to life, dignity, equality, freedom and safety for all people, but especially those living in informal settlements across South Africa.